Automatic call-distribution (ACD) systems are well known in the art for providing telemarketing-type services. In such systems, incoming calls concerning some predefined topic (typically a product or a service) are distributed for answering to individual ones of a plurality of agents, or outgoing calls regarding the topic are placed either manually by the plurality of agents or automatically by the ACD system itself. Given a finite number of agents, ACD systems cannot handle an unlimited number of calls. Consequently, during periods of especially-heavy incoming-call volume, some callers are placed on hold to await the availability of ACD agents to handle the calls.
ACD system providers can subscribe to the option of having callers' telephone numbers delivered to them by the telephone company along with the incoming calls. Some ACD systems take advantage of this capability by recording the telephone numbers of incoming calls and offering callers who have been placed on hold the option of either remaining on hold or hanging up and having their calls returned by agents when they become available. Some state-of-the-art ACD systems expand upon this capability even further and allow the callers who have been placed on hold to leave voice messages for agents. These messages are then delivered to the ACD agents, who are charged with returning the calls. The messages either may be retrieved by ACD agents manually by prompting the ACD system, or they may be delivered to ACD agents automatically by the ACD system when it detects that the agents have become available. The return call may even be originated automatically by the ACD system.
Though these arrangements make possible the return of calls that have not been handled by agents, they have a serious shortcoming in that the calls are returned at the ACD systems' convenience as opposed to the original callers'--the customers'--convenience. That is, it is the ACD systems or agents that decide when to return the calls. Returning of the calls is typically done at the first opportunity when some agents become free from answering incoming calls. But this time may not be convenient for the original callers--for example, they may no longer be available to receive the returned calls. This has a number of undesirable economic consequences. Firstly, it wastes agents' time in making unproductive calls. Secondly, from a telecommunications standpoint, it is costly to set up connections end-to-end that do not yield anything of value either to the employers of the ACD service or to the called customers. And thirdly, the customers may not realize that they had been called back, or even if informed thereof may lose patience and not return the calls, resulting in negative customer perceptions in the former case and loss of business opportunities in both cases.
In the case of the ACD systems that allow on-hold callers to leave voice messages, it is possible that callers could specify the times at which they wish to be called back. But many callers may not think of doing so. Even if they do, there is no assurance that agents will receive their messages in time to place the return calls at the desired times. And even if the agents do get the messages in time, there is no assurance that the generally harried agents will be able to keep good enough records or remember to return a myriad of calls at the requested times, or that they will be free of answering incoming calls at the requested times in order to be able to return the calls then.